[Guidance Overview]
Court Approves $8.5M Settlement for Schering-Plough Participants in Stock Drop Suit
Excerpt: "[A U.S. District Judge] approved the settlement for 'all persons (excluding defendants) who were participants in or beneficiaries (including alternate payees) of the [Schering-Plough Employees' Savings Plan] at any time between July 29, 1998, and April 18, 2007, and whose accounts included investment in the company stock fund at any point during that time period.'"
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)

[Guidance Overview]
IRS's 2010 Cumulative List of Changes for Cycle A and Pre-Approved Plans
Excerpt: "Sponsors of Cycle A plans, pre-approved plan submitters, and their advisors, should carefully review the 2010 Cumulative List to ensure that their submissions address the issues the IRS has specifically identified for review. Of course, to be qualified, plans must comply with all relevant qualification requirements, even those that are not on the list."
(Employee Benefits Institute of America)

The Big Financial Stretch: Preparing for Those Later Decades
Excerpt: "Americans don't think enough about retirement in general -- from how they will afford it to how they plan to pass the time when regular work ends. A survey . . . found that fewer than half of those polled have tried to calculate how much they will need to live on in retirement."
(Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania)

Understanding 401(k) Fees and Making Every Basis Point Count
Excerpt: "In this article reprinted with permission from the Fourth Quarter 2010 issue of Benefits Quarterly, Aon Hewitt retirement expert Pam Hess and her co-author Valerie M. Kupferschmidt discuss the components of Total Plan Cost in DC plans, along with methods to reduce them."
(Aon Hewitt)

Responding to the Downturn: How Does Information Change Behavior?
Excerpt: "After answering basic questions about financial well-being and reactions to the stock market downturn, the respondents were told, 'If the financial decline is not reversed, the loss in retirement savings means households must: save more; work longer (retire later or work in retirement); and/or have less in retirement (spending less or leaving less as an inheritance). Indicate what you think those changes would be.'"
(Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

2011 Pension Preview: Challenges and Changes (PDF)
24 pages. Excerpt: "To put [the Challenges and Changes] themes into context, aggregate funded status for the US plans of S&P 500 companies remains depressed. We estimate funded status as of late November 2010 to be approximately 82%, in-line with where it was at the end of 2009 despite the notable rise in share prices in recent months and significant contributions made by some plan sponsors this year . . . ."
(The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)

Maryland Panel Recommends Sweeping Retirement Benefit Changes for Public Employees
Excerpt: "Maryland state workers would have to work for 15 years instead of the current five to become eligible for pension or retiree health care benefits, according to new recommendations from a study panel. An Associated Press news report said the Public Employees' & Retirees' Benefit Sustainability Commission is also recommending that state employees would have to spend 25 years working for the state, instead of 16 years, to receive the maximum retiree health care premium subsidy and put in 10 years instead of five to become pension vested."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)

BrightScope 2010 Top 30 401k Plans
Excerpt: "BrightScope's Top 30 list comprises large 401k plans with high overall quality, as measured by the BrightScope Rating. The BrightScope Rating measures how effective a 401k plan is at getting its participants to retirement."
(BrightScope Inc.)

Itís a whole new world at the 2011 NTSAA Annual Conference, the premier 403(b) and 457 forum for educating producers, providers, agents, broker/dealers, sales and marketing managers, office staff, plan sponsors and other business officials. Register now and join your colleagues in Orlando February 2-5, 2011.

[Guidance Overview]
ISS FAQs on Shareholder Say on Parachute Payments
Excerpt: "[M]any companies have decided not to include the golden parachute vote in their 2011 annual meeting proxy statements because of the unnecessary attention that vote could draw from ISS. ISS confirms its position on this matter in its [FAQs that were updated on December 14.]"
(Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
ISS FAQs on 2011 SSOP Voting and Other Executive Compensation Issues
Excerpt: "[One of the FAQs is:] In the event that a company's board decides not to adopt the say on pay vote frequency supported by a plurality of the votes cast, what are the implications in terms of ISS' voting recommendations at subsequent meetings? [The ISS answer is:] This policy has not been determined. The policy will be decided after review of the first year of voting results and after consultation with ISS's clients, and will be included in the policy updates for 2012."
(Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
Transit Pass Requirements Postponed Until 2012
Excerpt: "As with the prior extensions the Notice states that, notwithstanding the new January 1, 2012 effective date, employers and employees may rely on Revenue Ruling 2006-57 for transactions that occur before that date."
(Deloitte via BenefitsLink.com)

[Guidance Overview]
IRS Delays Effective Date of Electronic Payment Card Guidance for Transit Expenses Until 2012
Excerpt: "This delayed effective date is good news for third-party administrators and employers offering qualified transportation fringe benefit plans where local transit systems are still not in compliance with the technological requirements for vouchers (presumably, the need for single-purpose cards or cards with separate 'purses' for transit versus parking expenses)."
(Employee Benefits Institute of America)

Text of the Report, 'Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2010-2014'
Excerpt: "Each report contains a discussion of the concept of tax expenditures, identification of new tax expenditures enacted into law, a general explanation on how the Staff measures tax expenditures, estimates of tax expenditures, and distributions of selected individual tax expenditures by income class."
(U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Taxation)

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